Ashes, Ashes (Survival)

Book Title: Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari

Topic:  Survival, Epidemics

Thoughts: Lucy is the only surviving member of her family after a plague has wiped out ninety-nine percent of the population.  She lives alone outside Manhattan trying to survive until on a trip to gather water, she meets Aidan who saves her from a pack of dogs. When a tsunami hits her makeshift home, Lucy scrambles for higher ground and ends up traveling to Hell's Gate.  Aidan and the group of people he lives with take Lucy in but she cannot decide if she wants to stay with them or not.

While Mccarthy's The Road pulls me in as I worry if the father and son will survive the dismal conditions, I know Lucy will survive on her own because she does have a water source and not all animals have been destroyed so she can hunt.  I do think this is more action driven than Hirsch's The Eleventh Plague that N.L. loaned me to read.  I'll recommend this to N.L. too to see which one he likes better.

Lucy does not have much down time trying to survive; she is like the early pioneers: hunt or gather food, clean and prepare food, cook food, sleep, and begin cycle next day.  Even when she meets up with Aidan's group, she is told "If you don't work, you don't eat." 

As you read, see if you can pick out the allusions Treggiari effectively weaves into the story line to remind up that earlier humans did not have life as easy as we have it now.  This is not a book I will burn into ashes but will keep on my shelf to recommend to other students who like reading books about the end of the world.